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Road paving project hits home stretch

Crews are hitting the home stretch for the joint road paving project in the Industrial Park area.

By Jon Lloyd

Staff Writer

The joint road paving project in Boone Industrial Park between Boone County and the City of Boone is in the home stretch.

Crews from Trevor Enterprises on Wednesday dumped and bulldozed the crushed gravel sub-base for the final portion of the project’s Section 6 on Quartz Avenue, from the Union Pacific railroad tracks to East Mamie Eisenhower Avenue.

Wicks Construction, the Decorah outfit which in May began pouring and paving the concrete for the six-section road project, will begin pouring cement for the final section on Quartz Avenue early next week, according to Boone County Engineer Bob Kieffer, who has overseen the $1.6 million project since its inception, including the sealed bidding in the county courthouse in January.

“We’re getting there,” Kieffer said Wednesday. “For the most part it’s a well-done project. It’s a major improvement from what was there.”

What was there - the two main roads, Industrial Park Road and Quartz Avenue, that serve Boone Industrial Park – were initially paved in the late ’80s. Over the years the heavy semi-trailer truck traffic into and out of the industrial park has worn down both roads. Quartz Avenue especially, near the park’s entrance east of Boone, was riddled with long cracks and small potholes.

The city used Tax Increment Financing to pay for its portion of the project, about 2,100 feet of Industrial Park Road, approximately $600- to $630,000, according to City Administrator Luke Nelson.

Fareway Stores, in Boone for more than 75 years and the anchor of the industrial park that is home to about a dozen light-industry companies, put up $250,000 for the project in its early discussions between the city and county.

The county’s share of the cost comes from tax revenue, according to Kieffer.

Paving near the Union Pacific railroad tracks just east of Fareway Stores’ warehouses will be done by hand, Kieffer said.

“That will be hand work,” he said. “You can’t get the paver right up next to the tracks.”

Kieffer said that once the work gets within 25 feet of the railroad tracks Union Pacific is notified and it stations an employee at the site while the work is being done.

“The railroad handwork will be done the first part of next week,” he said. “Then shortly after that they will go on down to Mamie.”

The paving could be completed by the end of next week, Kieffer said.

Center and shoulder lines will be painted on the road by Iowa Plains Signing in Slater once the nine-inch concrete road is paved and cures. The company put up all of the traffic control signs, Kieffer said.

“It’s one of the last things that’s done,” he said. “When the shoulders are done and all the driveways are tied in and they get the road signs back up they will put the lines down.”

As of Monday, Wicks Construction had 15 days left on its 100-day contract to finish it, Kieffer said. If work continues past the deadline, the company will be penalized $1,000 day a day, Kieffer said.

“I think they’ve done a very good job,” he said. “For the complexity of it, the amount of businesses that you have to keep moving and the number of trucks in and out of the place, I think they’ve done a very good job.”